NEW YORK – A passenger on a United Airlines flight has been arrested for allegedly making an attempt to open an exit door and stabbing a flight attendant with a metallic spoon, prosecutors stated Monday.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was arrested on Sunday when the airplane landed at Boston Logan International Airport after a flight from Los Angeles, the US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts stated.
Torres, of Leominster, Massachusetts, has been charged with tried interference with flight crew members and attendants utilizing a harmful weapon, it stated in a press release.
According to prosecutors, the flight crew of the airplane seen about 45 minutes earlier than touchdown in Boston that an emergency exit door had been disarmed.
Flight attendants confronted Torres, who had been seen close to the door, and notified the captain that “they believed Torres posed a threat to the aircraft,” they stated.
Torres allegedly attacked a flight attendant shortly afterwards with a damaged metallic spoon “hitting the flight attendant on the neck area three times,” the US Attorney’s Office stated.
“Passengers then tackled Torres and he was restrained with the assistance of flight crew,” it stated.
If convicted, Torres might face a sentence of as much as life in jail. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
